Some weeks ago, we penned an article captioned “What mischief will legislature produce?”

Although that august body will not adjourn sine die for some days yet, they have already established a new record for Acts of ignorance, shame, and disgrace that will be hard to equal, but no doubt they will strive to do so just next year.

Consider, if you will the following efforts, some of which have passed, some which have not yet been acted upon and some of which are lying in abeyance awaiting an opportune time to rear their ugly heads and become public Acts.

By LEE HAMILTON
Center on Congress
A few weeks ago, the Republican National Committee issued a 100-page report aimed at reviving the GOP after its poor showing in last November’s elections. It was remarkably blunt about the specifics of the party’s shortcomings — its lack of inclusiveness, its hapless data initiatives, its poor grassroots organizing.

What it did not take on, however, was an issue the RNC can do little about: the diminished influence, if not irrelevance, of both major parties in American politics.

Gentle reader, you no doubt are familiar with the hymn, “Will the Circle be Unbroken?” We, of course, know not the answer to that question about the future, but we do know that as to the present, the answer is definitely “no,” for we find that with each passing year our circle of friends and acquaintances is broken in more and more places.

By LEE HAMILTON
Center on Congress
Wherever you stood on Sen. Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster to delay John Brennan’s confirmation as CIA director, or on the Senate’s confirmation hearings for Brennan and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, they all serve as a reminder of just how feeble Congress has proven to be when it comes to foreign policy.

We have not previously published much laudatory verbiage concerning Kentucky’s junior senator, Rand Paul, but his recent accomplishment has shown that he has inherited at least some of his daddy’s political skills. We refer, of course, to his day-long filibuster.

By GENE POLICINSKI
First Amendment Center
The forecast from this year’s National Sunshine Week, March 10-15, which annually focuses on issues of freedom of information and transparency in government, was “partly cloudy, with some sun and some storms.”

Gentle reader, a few days ago we were reading a book published some years ago the title of which presently escapes us, when we encountered the phrase, “The free world.” Upon reading this phrase, it struck us that this phrase which was once so frequently used, both orally and in writing, has become virtually obsolete.

Tennessee Department of Children’s Services has one of the toughest, most unforgiving jobs in state government — to protect the most vulnerable children in our society from harm — but few Tennesseans know much about the agency.

Most details about Children’s Services operations are denied to the public by confidentiality required under state law to protect the privacy of the children and the families that come into contact with DCS.